Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is one of the most prevalent cancers in the Orient and Southern Africa. In the past 10 years, there have been significant advances in the diagnosis and treatment of HCC patients, with a result that the cases of surgical treatment are increasing (Arii, S. et al., Primary liver cancer in Japan, Springer-Verlag (1992) 243-255; The Liver Cancer Study Group of Japan, Primary liver cancer in Japan, Springer-Verlag (1992) 445-453). Despite the marked progress, however, the survival rate remains low. One of the barriers to the lengthening of the survival period appears to be the occurrence of intrahepatic regeneration of the cancer after its complete removal on a macroscopic level (The Liver Cancer Study Group of Japan, Ann. Surg. (1990) 211, 277-287; Belghiti, J. et al., Ann. Surg. (1991) 214, 114-117).
In this connection, extensive efforts have been made to determine a prognosis judging factor that affects the intrahepatic regeneration and the lengthening of the survival period. Up to now, the inventor of the present invention has analyzed the expression of several genes of HCC (Mise, M. et al., Hepatology (1996) 23, 455-464; Furutani, M. et al., Hepatology (1996) 24, 1441-1445; Furutani, M. et al., Cancer Lett. (1997) 111, 191-197). As a result the present inventor has identified kan-1 (bile acid CoA: amino acid N-acyl transferase) mRNA as a novel prognosis judging factor. The expression of this factor is decreased in HCC with poor prognosis (Furutani, M. et al., Hepatology (1996) 24, 1441-1445).
In addition to the above, novel molecular markers of HCC, that add to the predicative value to conventional clinical prognostic factors such as portal complications, α-fetoprotein (AFP) levels, tumor size, the number of tumors, and the like, are sought (The Liver Cancer Study Group of Japan, Primary liver cancer in Japan, Springer-Verlag (1992) 445-453; The Liver Cancer Study Group of Japan, Ann. Surg. (1990) 211, 277-287; The Liver Cancer Study Group of Japan, Cancer (1994) 74, 2772-2780; Franco, D. et al., Gastroenterology (1990) 98, 733-738; Calvet, X. et al., Hepatology (1990) 12, 753-760).